29 feb

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has acknowledged that Al Qaeda and other organizations on the US “terror list” are supporting the Syrian opposition.
Clinton said: “We have a very dangerous set of actors in the region, al-Qaida [sic], Hamas, and those who are on our terrorist list, to be sure, supporting – claiming to support the opposition [in Syria].” [1] (Click here to watch video)
Yet at the same time, in the above BBC interview the US Secretary of State repeats the threadbare Western claim that the situation in Syria is one of a defenceless population coming under “relentless attack” from Syrian government forces.
There is ample evidence that teams of snipers who have been killing civilians over the past year in Syria belong to the terrorist formations to which Clinton is referring to.
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The admission at the weekend by Hillary Clinton corroborates the finding that armed groups are attacking civilians and these groups are terroristic, according to US own definitions, and that the situation in Syria is not one of unilateral state violence against its population but rather is one of a shadowy armed insurrection.
Clinton’s admission retrospectively justifies the stance taken by Russia and China, both of which vetoed the proposed UN Security Council Resolution on 4 February, precisely because that proposal was predicated on a spurious notion that the violence in Syria was solely the responsibility of the Al Assad government.
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Besides, such a declaration by Saudi Arabia and Qatar of being willing to arm Syrian insurrectionists, can be seen as a cynical cover for what is already taking place. It is known that the Gulf monarchical states are already supplying weapons illicitly to the self-styled Syrian Free Army, along with Turkey and Israel.
So far, the US is officially maintaining the fiction that it is not involved in supplying arms to Syria even though Washington has demanded “regime change” and in spite of evidence that Western covert forces, including American, British and French operatives, are actively engaged with the opposition groups.
It is richly ironic that the unelected fundamentalist Sunni regimes of the Persian Gulf are supporting Al Qaeda affiliated groups within Syria purportedly to “bring about democratic reforms”. This is the same dynamic that prevailed in Libya where the overthrow of that country’s government by Western and Gulf Arab powers has now led to a collapse in human rights and social conditions.
Once again, Syria is indicating the same alignment of allies: Washington, London and other NATO powers comfortably in bed with Sunni/Salafist tyrants and terrorists, claiming to be supporting democratic freedom and human rights.

A defected military officer, who refused to be named, told reporters in the western Syrian city of Al-Qusayr on Tuesday that armed groups receive “French and American assistance.”
He then clarified that the group had received weapons and anti-aircraft missiles from France and the United States.

Voltaire Network has learned from reliable source that a French officer was taken prisoner by the Syrian National Army on Monday, 27 February 2012, at Azouz (Idlib district, near the Turkish border).
The arrest brings to 19 (nineteen) the number of French prisoners held by Damascus.

The only purpose of an urgent UN debate on the human rights situation in Syria was “to put international community against the Syrian authorities”, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov said.
He believes that there was no need calling an urgent conference on the issue, because it was aimed at proclaiming the government in Damascus ‘illegitimate’.
“We can`t allow this to happen”, Gatilov said, adding that the Syrian regime had taken certain measures to improve the human rights situation and launch democratic reforms in the region.
The diplomat insists that attempts to impose democracy through the use of force will inevitably cause a reverse effect.